Counter-Strike

Hello Alexandru. Thanks for having time for us to answer some questions about your life, your career and DreamHack Bucharest attendance. What’s going on in your life at this moment besides gaming?

Hello. First of all, let me introduce myself. My name is Alexandru Leoveanu and I am 24 years old. Honestly right now there is nothing going on, work and play Counter-Strike. My life is a bit boring.

How does a normal day look in your life, from the moment when you wake up, until you go to sleep?

Well, it's starts like this: I wake up at 8:00 AM and get ready for work. I'm currently working as a financial adviser at BCR (a bank in Romania). I come home at 3:00 PM, hang out with my girlfriend:X, eat something and then go to the gym. After that I come home and just play some Counter-Strike for as long as I can then go to bed. Like I said, it's a bit boring.

How did you come in the pro scene? What was your first "real" team (line-up) and what made you the player that you are today?

I believe I started playing Counter-Strike with some friends of mine. We were going to a icafe here in Craiova that is the town where I live and just started to enjoy it. Here there was a team called CAF that played in biggest league in Romania, PGL (Professional Gamers League). Every day I was going to the icafe to watch them practice and got me more interested in having my own team. I started a team with a good friend of mine and the team's name was -aG- (stands for Another Godz :D). And from there it was kind of easy. I played with them like one year before I became a regular in team IGG. And with this team I have many memories. We went to a lot of events here in Romania and got the experience for the time now. What made me a good player? Motivation! Practice with my team, respawn servers and POV from different players all over the world. I always get questions from people on mIRC what can they do to improve the skill and I always answer: practice hard if you wanna get "skilled".

How did your family react when you told them you would go to another country to play Counter-Strike for an event?

Well, I'm playing this game since 2003, so my mom told me that is was about time to go play Counter-Strike in other country because I spent a lot of years playing just in Romania. My father didn't care to much but they were happy that I was going to represent my country to an event.

Your team dominated Romanian Counter-Strike 1.6 scene in the last two years. Which was your key of success?

We were a new team. No one could understand our style. Our key of success was the team itself. We had good days and some bad days like any other good team. I wish that we could prove how good we are international, but with the lack of sponsors it's hard for a Romanian team to get by.

What do you think about the teams which already invited/qualified for DreamHack Bucharest?

It's like going to an World Cyber Games tournament. I've traveled 2 times with this game, once in Seattle,US (WCG 2007) and once in Busan,Korea (WCG 2011). But this time we have the best teams traveling to our beautiful country. I am really excited for this event. The likes of fnatic, NaVi, Anexis, the ex-M5 are coming to Romania. I really like this. It's kinda sad that ESC,SK,mTw arent coming, but those teams are not there anymore, just ESC who switched to CS:GO.

Your team qualified from second romanian qualifier. How your team practicing for this event? How does your practice schedule look like?

Our practice is based on our player Horatiu-Andrei 'eXIt' Toade, who has a job a little complicated. We have not yet begun our practice for DreamHack Bucharest but we will start very soon. We will train for 2 weeks and I hope that we can make a good face at DreamHack. And for the practice itself, We begin with some tactics and then just search for teams to play with.

Which is your goal for this event? Perhaps among the top three?

I really hope that we do good because I understand this is the last Counter-Strike 1.6 event in the world. I can say that we want top three, because all the money are for top three teams but it's really hard with such teams. My top three is: 1. fnatic 2. ex-Moscow5 3. NaVi.

Which is your opinion about valve new brand, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive?

It's a bit of good and bad. I've played the game and still playing. I like the idea of a more realistic game, the graphics are amazing. The only thing that I hate is the fire from the guns, the recoil. I hope that VALVE will improve this because it is horrible and I know that they will update the game and that they will do that soon. Other then that it's a very good game.

After Dreamhack Bucharest, your team will switch to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive?

We have to. PGL (who's the league that we are playing in Romania) will switch to CS:GO. I think all events will feature Global Offensive cuz it's time. Counter-Strike 1.6 it's kinda old, 10 years is a really long damn ass time. It's hard to switch from a game that you know so well to a game that looks a bit similar but it's not. There are so many things to learn in CS:GO. Valve needs to make some updates to the game so that the community of CS 1.6 can join aswell.

All right. Do you have any shout out you want to give?

Thank you very much for this interview and a BIG THANK YOU for all the fans that knows us and support us. And for the kids that just started to play this game: QUIT AND GO TO SCHOOL cuz it's better!